DCHS Students Parade Their “Tiger Pride” Through Town (View Video Here)

September 30, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County High School students paraded their “Tiger Pride” from one end of town to the other Friday afternoon on the last day of Homecoming Spirit Week.

The Tiger football team’s homecoming opponent tonight (Friday night) is the Livingston Academy Wildcats and the floats in the parade had a Tiger versus Wildcats theme.

The parade featured Homecoming Queen Reese Williams and her attendants, Deanna Agee, Carlee West, Hannah Trapp, Sadie Moore, and Caroline Crook, the DCHS Fighting Tiger Band, the football team, cheerleaders, Mr and Miss DCHS Colby Barnes and Morgan Walker, class and club floats, other high school athletes, lots of decorated cars and trucks, emergency vehicles, among others. The event concluded with a pep rally on the square led by DCHS Football cheerleaders.

Winners in the Float Competition were:

First Place- Junior Class: “I Smell Victory, Tigers Put A Spell on the Wildcats”

Second Place-Senior Class: “Tigers Flatten the Wildcats”

Third Place- Sophomore Class: “Wildcats are Lookin’ for Trouble”

Best decorated automobiles:

First Place Ansley Cantrell

Second Place-McKenzie Sanders

Third Place- Mason Winter

Honorable Mention-Dixie Hill

FCCLA sponsored Homecoming Business Decorating Competition: First Place-Cantrell’s Clothing (Fluty)

Spirit Stick Award Winners-

First Place- Senior Class

Second Place- Junior Class

Third Place- Sophomore Class

Fourth Place-Freshman Class

September 30, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

Older dogs need love too!

Meet “Matilda” the WJLE/DeKalb Animal Shelter featured “Pet of the Week”

“Matilda is one of our senior babies. She is about 9-10 years old. Matilda is a super sweet girl and loves everyone. She has spent the majority of her life outdoors, but we don’t think it would be impossible for her to learn to be an indoor dog. Matilda is really cuddly. She had a bad injury on her back but has recovered and everything is ok now. She has been spayed and is up to date on all her vaccinations. Matilda has been micro-chipped and heart worm screened and has a great bill of health. Her adoption fee is only $80 and is sponsored by our “Friends Of” Organization,” said Shelter Director Emmaly Bennett.

“Visit our website at https://www.dekalbanimalsheltertn.com/ to see her picture, fill out an adoption application for Matilda and we will call you to come in and meet her,” said Bennett.

The shelter is open Monday-Friday from 8 to 4 and Saturday from 8 to 12 at 186 Transfer Station Road.

September 30, 2022
By:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District awarded a $91,250,000 contract today to American Bridge Company for the Center Hill Dam Spillway Gates Replacement Project.

Center Hill Dam is located on the Caney Fork River in Lancaster, Tennessee. The dam forms Center Hill Lake, which covers parts of DeKalb, Putman, White, and Warren Counties. It controls the runoff from a drainage area of 2,174 square miles.

Replacement is needed because a Spillway Radial Gate Evaluation Design Document Report in 2016 revealed the eight spillway tainter gates are subject to overstress due to trunnion friction issues. Trunnion friction is the force generated around the trunnion pin during a gate lifting operation. It is caused by the bearing of the trunnion pin against the gates’ trunnion hub and bushing, which is the rotating point of the gate. In addition, the gates and lifting equipment have been in operation since the dam was completed for full beneficial use in 1948.

The scope of this contract include fabrication of eight new spillway tainter gates; removal of existing gates and lifting machinery equipment required to operate the gates; and installation of the new gates and lifting machinery equipment.

Omar Acevedo, Nashville District project manager, said the contractor will systematically replace each gate. The contractor is limited to three inoperable gates at any period of time, always leaving five operable gates. As an additional risk reduction measure, only one gate bay will be open at any given time during construction. Replacement of gates will only occur between June and November each year, which is considered the dry season, targeting lower peak summer lake elevations.

This replacement project will ensure the authorized flood-risk-reduction capabilities of this project will be realized for many years to come. During construction, “the key takeaway is that public safety is our top priority,” Acevedo said. “Corps of Engineers’ water managers will maintain lake levels within current parameters agreed upon with the Southeastern Power Administration and the public will not experience significant drawdowns of the lake elevation. The most distinguishable change to reservoir levels during the construction period, may be a lower peak summer pool from 648 feet to closer to 645 feet. This adjustment would lower project risk during construction while still falling within current operating targets.”

Acevedo said it will initially take some time for the contractor to begin fabricating the new gates, so he doesn’t expect significant construction impacts in the near term to traffic crossing the dam on Highway 96. As the project proceeds later in 2023, the Corps of Engineers plans to communicate any road closures and impacts with signage, news releases, and posts on Center Hill Lake’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/centerhilllake.

“The Corps of Engineers will do everything possible in the planning and execution phases of the project to reduce traffic impacts to local businesses and residents,” Acevedo added. “Traffic on Highway 96 will be reduced to one lane for the duration of the construction and occasional full closure up to 24 hours, but not on weekends.”

The contractor will also have to modify the bridge substructure for accessibility to accommodate replacement of the eight spillway tainter gates, which are 37-feet high and 50-feet wide, and to access lifting machinery equipment. This includes wire rope and drum setup, and replacement of high and low-speed gear boxes, 10 horsepower electric motor, bull and pinion gears, and the machinery base on each gate pier.

American Bridge Company, part of the Southland Holdings LLC group of companies, specializes in construction of new bridges, bridge rehabilitation and maintenance, complex structures, and marine construction. Its headquarters is located in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania.

The replacement of the spillway tainter gates and lifting machinery equipment will not affect the operation of the dam’s three hydroelectric generating units, which provide a total capability of 135,000 kilowatt-hours of hydropower.